Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar addresses the indictments of a deputy and former deputy accused of assaulting an inmate in June 2017.

The inmate “had been put on the floor in a position of disadvantage and was in the process of surrendering his hands to be handcuffed,” Salazar said, when one of the deputies struck the inmate several times with a stick, injuring him. The sheriff didn’t identify which deputy hit the man.

Salazar said the other deputy punched the inmate in the face after he was handcuffed and was being led out of the cell.

The man, who was 25 years old when the incident occurred, was in jail on a charge of assault on a peace officer, the sheriff said. Salazar said his injuries were not severe.

“People are entrusted to our custody, and they won’t be treated in this manner,” Salazar said. The man has since been released, officials said.

Gomez and Hernandez were placed on administrative duty and gave investigators their account of the incident.

But two other detention officers who were on the same team came forward to tell investigators what they saw, Salazar said.

Salazar said Gomez and Hernandez retaliated against their colleagues, starting with verbal threats.

In one incident, Salazar said, one of the deputies was working in a master control room when he closed a door on a detention officer he believed had reported him to investigators.

“This job is hard enough without somebody like that coming in and making it harder,” Salazar said.

The sheriff said he is expecting additional charges to be filed in connection with the accusations of retaliation.

The public integrity unit, formed by Salazar at the start of his administration to look into crimes committed by public officials, is handling the investigation.

SERT teams are comprised of six highly trained detention officers. When they respond to an incident, four deputies are tasked with handling the out-of-control inmate. The fifth deputy coordinates their efforts while a sixth deputy traditionally has been assigned to hold a camera and record the operation from start to finish.

Since the incident, all SERT officers have been wearing body cameras as the department tests the devices, Salazar said. The sheriff’s office is still searching for a body camera company, he added.

“This incident in particular was one of the major driving factors behind my wanting to put body cameras on the SERT team,” Salazar said. “We want to have full coverage of an incident like that when it occurs.”

Gomez served more than three years as a deputy until he resigned on March 30. Hernandez is two-year veteran of the force and has been on administrative leave since Jan. 11.

This isn’t the first time Salazar has had to hold a news conference over the conduct of SERT members.

In August, seven deputies were placed on leave after a hazing incident at a house party that involved county-issued handcuffs, shackles and a stun gun and apparently occurred in the presence of a child.

Gomez was one of those deputies.

In addition, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards a week earlier, on April 4, issued a notice that the jail was in noncompliance. The finding was part of the state’s report on the factors that led to the March 2 escape of three murder suspects. Salazar said they have since addressed the two problems listed in the notice, which included having too many inmates in an exercise area and not enough contraband checks.

The day after the report, Salazar said deputies had foiled another escape attempt. That evening, Salazar announced in a news release that Deputy Chief Laura Balditt, assistant jail administrator, was retiring after 31 years with the office.